Like almost everything in marketing, performance marketing doesn’t come cheap. But when it’s based on a strategic plan that’s been developed with absolute precision it can be impressively, even spectacularly, cost-effective. A successful performance marketing plan begins with the answers to the questions on this checklist.

And when I say that it’s imperative for you to answer thoroughly each and every one of them before your program can hope to have even a shot at success, I’m not kidding.

I’ve been driving my clients crazy with my probing, insistent questions for years, and I’ll doggedly continue to do so. For while it’s true that meetings would end earlier and tempers would flare less frequently if I were to back off, it’s also true that my clients’ ROI would suffer as a result.

It will be tempting to give short shrift to some of the items on this checklist, to provide casual answers, best guesses, working assumptions, data that’s stale and statements that are just politically correct.

So make sure you’re approaching each item on the list with maximum precision and frankness. Make sure, also, that you revisit this checklist prior to the launch of every performance marketing program your company undertakes in future.

…And now:

performancemarketing.expert checklist #2: launching a successful performance marketing program

Part 1: Establishing Your Performance Marketing Campaign Goals

1. What is your product or service? (Provide a detailed description.)
2. How much total revenue do you hope to generate?
3. What is your average sale in units and dollars?
4. What is your pricing strategy?
   • Per-unit price.
   • Per-unit gross margin.
   • Per-unit sales.
   • Marketing allocation.
5. How does your pricing compare to that of your competitors?
6. Can your product/service be sold in a single contact, or are multiple steps required?
7. Is a one-step strategy appropriate given your market, product, price, and competitive situation?
   • If yes, why?
   • If no, why?
8. What are your program performance expectations?
   • Response rate targets?
   • Lead quantity?
   • Allowable Cost-per-Lead (CPL)?
   • Cost-per-Response targets?
   • Closing or conversion rate targets?
   • Expense-to-Revenue (E/R)?
   • Cost-per-Sale (CPS)?
   • Return-on-Investment (ROI)?
   • Sales volume target?
9. What are your opportunities for up-sell or cross-sell?
10. Do you have specific budget constraints?

Part 2: Profiling Your Target Audience

1. Describe who is going to benefit from having your product or service. Then list the unique features, advantages and benefits of your product/service for each target group.
   • Business-to-business (B2B) target industries/companies.
   • Business-to-consumer (B2C) target (i.e. seniors, mothers, college kids)
2. Where are your target buyers located?
3. Where do your targets get their information?
4. Are they currently using a competitive product? Explain.
5. What would motivate them to make a change?
6. What situation/need/pain/issue will your product/service solve for them?
7. Will they need to change their behavior to use your product?
   • If yes, why?
   • If no, why?

Part 3: Offering the Right Incentive to Respond or Buy through Your Performance Marketing Campaign

1. If your product/service can be sold in a single step, what incentive offers can you make to sweeten the buying decision?
   • Discounts?
   • Bonus accessories?
   • Bonus information products?
   • Free services?
   • Bonus services?
   • Bonus gift?
   • Free shipping?
   • Free extended warranty?
   • Other?
2. If your product/service requires a longer buying cycle and multiple contacts to sell, do you have unique and insightful information to offer that your target audience will request immediately?
   • Whitepapers or how-to guides?
   • Webinars?
   • Free demonstrations?
   • Checklists?
   • Others?
3. What’s the relevance of your offers based upon your target market’s needs, pains, problems or interests? Explain.
4. If your product/service has a lengthy buying cycle, do you have multiple offers to provide that are appropriate at each stage prior to the purchase decision?
   • What are the offers applicable to interest stage?
   • What are the offers applicable to consideration stage?
   • What are the offers applicable to evaluation stage?

Part 4: Integrating Your Brand Message and Performance Marketing Best Practices

1. What are the platform, message and relevant guidelines of your brand?
2. How much does the brand require you to talk about the company and the brand versus the needs of the target market?
3. Does the brand allow you to make your offer the star of your messaging?
   • If yes, explain.
   • If no, explain.
4. Will the graphic standards or policies that are required support or conflict with performance marketing best practices?
   • If yes, explain.
   • If no, explain.

Part 5: Converting Leads, Closing Sales and Tracking Results

1. Do inbound telemarketing and/or online marketing have a selling or customer service orientation? Are there any constraints?
2. If Sales Department requires a multi-step campaign, have you carefully detailed the outbound telemarketing and/or online capabilities to support this effort? Are there volume constraints?
3. In a multi-step selling program, who closes the sale?
   • Telemarketing?
   • In-person sales?
   • Online?
   • Fully automated (i.e. a website with an order form)?
   • Other?
4. Are the fulfillment capabilities described in detail? Are there volume constraints?
5. Is the back-end ready to support sales conversion?
6. At the end of the program, how will success be measured? (Check all that apply.)
   • Response rates?
   • Cost-per-Lead (CPL)?
   • Closing or conversion rates?
   • Cost-per-Sale (CPS)?
   • Sales volume?
   • Lead quantity?
   • Cost-per-Response?
   • Expense-to-Revenue (E/R)?
   • Return-on-Investment (ROI)?
   • Return-on-AdSpend (ROAS)?
   • Other?